Amendment for full-time Legislature proposed

Sunday

Dec 12, 2010 at 12:01 AMDec 12, 2010 at 11:13 PM

Sens. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, and Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, have introduced a constitutional amendment to create a full-time Legislature. The amendment was introduced the second day of the special legislative session that began Wednesday.

Sens. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, and Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, have introduced a constitutional amendment to create a full-time Legislature. The amendment was introduced the second day of the special legislative session that began Wednesday.If the session lasts only a minimum of five days, the amendment has no chance of passing, because it takes five days to pass a bill or constitutional amendment.Ross said his intent is to start a dialogue. “We have a part-time Legislature but it’s a full-time job,” Ross said. “There’s no question a study needs to be done.” The amendment says a legislator shall have no other “gainful employment” while in office. Singleton said that would end double-dipping claims.Gov. Bob Riley and the state school board approved a two-year college system regulation banning legislators from holding jobs in the two-year college system. Ross is one of the legislators working for the two-year system who was forced to quit his job once he was re-elected on Nov. 2. “I think we should be a full-time Legislature,” Singleton said. “”Other states do it. It takes away double-dipping improprieties.”

The new leadership in the Republican-dominated House and Senate is set. Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, was elected speaker and state Rep. Victor Gaston, R-Mobile, was elected speaker pro tem. Hubbard was first elected in 1998 and Gaston was first elected in 1982.Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, is the House Democrats’ party leader. Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, is the new Senate president pro tem. Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, is the Senate Majority Leader. Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, is the Senate Minority Leader. Hubbard said he is the first Republican House speaker since 1873.

Gov.-elect Robert Bentley has named two members of his future cabinet. Bentley said he’ll keep banking Superintendent John D. Harrison.Harrison was director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs and has been banking superintendent under Gov. Bob Riley since 2005.“John Harrison has performed very admirably in his role as superintendent of the State Banking Department and I want him to continue in that important position,” Bentley said.Bentley said Dr. R. Bob Mullins Jr. will be his Medicaid director. Mullins is a general practice physician in Valley.“I’ve known Bob Mullins virtually all my life, growing up together in Columbiana, Alabama,” Bentley said. “He is a family doctor of long standing and is eminently qualified to be Medicaid director.”Dr. Mullins graduated from the University of Alabama medical school in 1968. He served two years as a military physician in the U.S. Army and began private practice in Valley in 1973.

A longtime State House regular, Ted Stansell, died a few weeks ago and was buried Dec. 2 at the veteran’s cemetery in Montevallo.Stansell started a state career with the Legislative Reference Service in the 1960s, but he was rooked out of a full time job after helping pass the Judicial Article in the 1970s, a former House member said.Former House Speaker Pro Tem Bobby Tom Crowe, of Jasper, said Stansell was a lawyer by education but never passed the bar. He worked for the LRS from 1967-73, LRS Director Jerry Bassett said. “He was an amazing guy,” Crowe said. Crowe said Chief Justice Howell Heflin lured Stansell away from the LRS to help rewrite the constitutional Judicial Article that modernized Alabama’s court system. After Stansell helped Heflin, he figured he’d have a job in the judicial system, but he was not hired, embittering Stansell, Crowe said.Crowe said Stansell was an Army veteran. “Ted always told the truth about legislation and in politics but he took great liberties with his age,” Crowe said. He said Stansell was 78 when he died.Leak Memory funeral home said Stansell died in a Montgomery hospital, but was not sure of his date of death.Urban legend has it that Stansell was the listening source for information about State House politics that ended up in the Inside Alabama Politics newsletter. “In the old Capitol rotunda, Ted knew exactly where to stand to hear everything,” Crowe said.

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